Egg (or other) allergy, how does your DC's preschool handle it?

[MegBusset]

DS1 (2.11) is allergic to egg, if he comes into contact with anything with fresh egg in it he comes out in hives. He is fine with a small amount of something with dry/processed egg as an ingredient eg shop-bought cake.

His preschool know that he is allergic to egg, as far as they are concerned he should not be given anything at all with egg in. They have been pretty lax about this and often he comes out clutching a bit of another child's birthday cake -- so far I have let this go as it wouldn't give him a reaction.

Anyway today he came out with a fairy cake that must have been home-made with fresh egg as he ate a small bit and had hives around his mouth straight away -- then he had diarrhoea which gave him hives around his bottom. Nothing life-threatening but obv not pleasant!

The upshot of all this is of course I will tell the preschool they need to be more vigilant about what food he is given. But just wondered what to do about other kids' birthdays -- there is always cake given out and he would be distraught to be left out. I was thinking of giving them a small selection of egg-free treats that he can be given instead. Does anyone else do this or have any other solutions?

DS1 is older now but I've always provided safe treats that he can be given.

At that age he was at kindergarten and it worked well as they had a set day each month for all the month's birthdays, so I knew in advance and was able to send in a nice fresh piece of cake or fairy cake for him.

Now it's just pot luck as to whether a kid brings a cake in, so I've bought packets of safe cakes (which are individually wrapped) that I leave with the teacher.

The main thing is for what you provide to be attractive enough to him that he won't worry about what the others are having!

Thanks, where do you get your individually wrapped cakes from (assuming they're egg-free)?

We live in Luxembourg I'm afraid so you probably don't have the same brands. It's one called Allergo that I can get from the supermarket, but I'm sure in your Free From aisles you must have something similar.

I work in a preschool

we provide snacks for the children, which are usually suitable for all the children - ie vegetarian, free from nuts etc.

with a severely allergic child parent has offered to provide own snack, in order to ensure no cross contamination.

If parents send in treats for their child's birthday, we only ever give them to the parent at the end of the session, not to the child. Parent can then make decison about suitability.

I would be wary of letting it go when they give him cakes which don't bother him as a. it don't raise the issue and b. the more exposure they have the more allergic they get in some cases.

Thanks for all the replies. Spoke to manager today who apologised and we have agreed that I'll supply some egg-free treats for him.

Now to search out some individual egg-free cakes...

I haven't used them yet (as children not at school) but I have had some badges made up for them to wear to warn about the allergies. This is where I ordered from:
www.makeabadge.co.uk/allergy.htm
I'm sure there would be other sites as well or you could make your own. Don't know whether the children will wear them yet, time will tell.